Saint Mary’s Basketball: Three Questions until Game Day
By Simon Tryzna
Jordan Guisti will look to defend his minutes that he earned last season.
With the 2013-2014 season slated to kick off in three days, here are three questions for the Gaels heading into their first three games. Following their game against North Dakota State on November 14th, we will look back and see if we can answer these questions:
1. Who plays where and for how long?
Steven Holt will play point guardand Brad Waldow will play center and both will be good. Everything else is in a state of flux. The Gaels are flowing with talent from top to bottom and the first three games, especially against teams with NCAA Tournament aspirations, should give head coach Randy Bennett an idea of where things stand with his rotation. It will be interesting to see who steps up. Prediction: Jordan Guisti’s offensive game comes close to matching his defense. James Walker III lights up the scoreboard as well.
2. Which of the new players has the biggest impact?
Calvin Hermanson, Dane Pineau, Kerry Carter, Garrett Jackson, and maybe even Trevean Duffy. Choose one. I think Jackson will play a big role, but Carter comes up with a play or a big shot that can turn around a game.
3. Can the Gaels actually do anything to make national “pundits” happy?
A blowout win over each team will probably have an asterisk next to it with people saying “yeah, but it was at McKeon.” A close win or a loss, and they will probably say “See, I told you they would miss Dellavedova…” It is perfectly reasonable to think that if Saint Mary’s is 7-0 heading into their game against Boise State, they will still be off the national radar. The ESPN matchup vs. Akron will have some bloggers writing about it, persumbably on Tuesday morning, after they quickly watched the taped game. (Then again, I can already see it.. “Saint Mary’s beats an Akron team who was jet lagged and playing a game that tipped off at 3AM where they are from.”)